Last Man Standing
by Melora Maxwell
Summary: The Delta Wave builds. The Daleks' massacre continues. The Doctor remembers. 9th Doctor, during PotW.


A/N: Got the Shooting Scripts for Christmas! Having seen what was cut from the new series regarding the Time War, this little one-shot begged to be written…

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Disclaimer: The Knights Tempus are my own, rather sad invention. Sadly, Doctor Who is the property of the BBC, Russell T Davies and Terry Nation.

Spoilers: Whopping great spoilers for the Ninth Doctor's era, and several for the original series.

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**Last Man Standing**

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* * *

**

It wasn't the first time he had heard gunshots, screams…the pleas for mercy.

It wasn't the first time either for wincing every time he heard death rays echoing through both metal corridors and his mind.

Frantically twisting cables together and plugging them into the detonator, he silently cursed and thanked himself that Rose was not here to witness this.

There was no point in thanking a God. He had met too many beings over the centuries with highly over-rated celestial powers. Not least his own people.

'…_This is the technology of the gods…_' Ironic how close to the mark Blon Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen had been.

He closed his eyes for a second as he remembered the will of Omega, lasting beyond death. How his first three incarnations had worked together to defeat the proto-Time Lord while he attempted to draw temporal energy from Gallifrey into his own universe of anti-matter.

The only way to relinquish Omega's pull on the Universe was to destroy him. It had pained them to do it.

Just as he had done to Gallifrey.

To the Time Lords.

* * *

_He saw them all as he had recorded his final message to Rose._

_Those who he had called family, who had been his family.  
__Those who he had disliked, but ultimately cared for.  
__Those who had chosen to stay and go.  
__Those who had been taken from him._

_Rose would now do as he once did._

_Protect the Time Lords, protect the secrets of time travel, and prevent any enemies from accessing Gallifreyan technology._

_The creed would live on._

* * *

The most painful losses stood out, burned into his mind.

The intelligent and wilful Time Lady who would always do the right thing, who had never left her beloved Grandfather until that fateful day when he had locked her out of the TARDIS. He had shed his tears privately so as not to distress the others.

The naïve sweet handmaiden who called him a Lord and the TARDIS a temple, who had chosen death rather than let him or Steven be harmed. The ship had screamed for the girl that day.

The ruthless and independent Space Security Agent who had let her unswerving devotion to duty destroy both her brother and her life. Such talent, and such a pointless waste.

The scatterbrained and flighty young UNIT agent, who had departed with a man she had called a younger version of himself. Even the thought of her happiness had done little to assuage the dull ache in his hearts.

The inexperienced but compelling Time Lady who had stayed with him through so many of his travels. Had he been braver, perhaps then possibilities might have been…possible. The remains of her body and her ship were now scattered around the dead husk of the planet she had fought to protect.

The arrogant and desperately needy boy genius who had wormed his way into the TARDIS, and into the hearts of Tegan, Nyssa and himself. He had never recovered from the Alzarian's horrific death, still seeing his face in his nightmares.

The weak-willed but noble android manipulated so cruelly by the Master, and then so willing to sacrifice its life to protect his saviour rather than let itself be controlled again. The TARDIS missed the strange being more than it would admit.

The streetwise human teenager and one of the Wolves of Fenric, stubborn and loyal to a fault. Sick of his manipulations, she had left his company and now roamed through the Universe as Time's Vigilante. There had been no contact from her for so many years now.

And then…

Koschei…He was one of the few who had known the renegade Time Lord by both his name and his later title. The ego to his id. Too strange to believe that he was gone, and too late to bring him back. He had hoped that wherever Koschei was now, he was content.

And the one who still oddly haunted him…

Ushas…a scientific genius unbound by morals, his fellow classmate in the collegiate, the head of the Knights Tempus (1) who had meant far more to him than he had realised. An exile who despite all appearances, had never stopped missing Gallifrey. She had passed away on the floor of the TARDIS, her ship and her remaining regenerations taken by the Daleks.

* * *

_They had all gone before him, all doing their part in some unknown way._

_He had watched in horror, blood streaming from his injuries as the firestorm blazed across the stars, enveloping the Time Lord and Dalek fleets._

_Darkness and nausea had begun to overtake his vision as the shockwave spread, throwing the TARDIS away from the burnt remains of Gallifrey, into the time-streams._

_He had felt his body crash against the console; an explosion of pain as his head had cracked on the heavy organic metal of the central column._

_He had awoken in pain and shock several hours later to find his body too tall and too thin for his once elegant Edwardian clothing, his features bony and too sharp, his hair cropped and severe._

* * *

He vaguely remembered curling his new body up into a ball and rocking back and forth as he screamed in grief.

* * *

He shook his head and blinked to clear the memories.

No time for recriminations now.

Not when his belief that the Daleks had been wiped out had been completely obliterated.

He could sense the deaths of the volunteers as the death rays tore through their bodies.

The Delta wave was building steadily.

He wrenched panels from the computers, twisting wires together and plugging them into the detonation switch.

A pause…a scream of terror.

Silence.

Lynda. No longer there, no longer a comforting presence at the edge of his mind.

And only an hour after he had promised to get her home.

Another meaningless death thanks to him.

The fallen increased.

His hands became a blur as they grabbed wires and cables.

His mind was tuned in to the last human on Floor 499, firing like a madman…

_Like you once did…_

'Last man standing! For God's sake, Doctor, finish that thing and _kill them_!'

Jack Harkness.

A friend and comrade.

The only one who truly understood the evil of the Daleks.

And now he was going to die because of his loyalty to the last of the Time Lords.

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A flicker of blue.

A single eye set in a deformed mass of tentacles and flesh.

Rumbling, bass tones so like the Puppet Emperor (2) who had abandoned them all to save his own warped skin.

'**Finish that thing and kill Mankind.**'

* * *

_Self-detonation._

_Initiate a firestorm, powered by Van Cassadyne energy. Transmit the code to the last of the TARDISes and blow the Daleks out of time and space._

_Why she had trusted him with this last order, he would never know._

_But an order from the head of the Knights Tempus was something he intended to follow, even if it killed him._

_The sequence had been pre-programmed into the TARDIS computer. One touch on the console, and the Daleks would cease to be. Creation would be safe once more._

_It was only after he had pressed the button that he realised what she had done._

_The self-detonation code did not apply to his ship._

_Protect the Time Lords, protect the secrets of time travel, and prevent any enemies from accessing Gallifreyan technology._

_The adopted creed of the Knights Tempus._

_The adopted and unlikely creed that the Rani had died protecting._

_A blaze of flame erupted from the fleet of battle TARDISes surrounded by the Dalek fleet._

_In the absence of her survival, she had chosen him to carry on as the last of the Tempus._

_The last man standing._

* * *

He jammed the equipment together frantically, listening to Jack as he made his final stand.

'Doctor! You've got twenty seconds maximum…'

Gunshots.

Screams.

Explosions.

The click of an empty bullet chamber.

A pause.

'**_EX-TER-MIN-ATE!_**'

Jack's voice.

'Yeah. I kinda guessed that.'

One horrific blast.

The thump of the body was drowned out by a sudden power surge from the detonator.

He stared in amazement.

'It's ready…'

And a metallic hum pervaded the control room.

Too late.

He stared at them.

'You really wanna think about this. Cos if I activate the signal, every single creature dies.'

The Emperor floated on the screen before him.

'**I am immortal.**'

'D'you wanna put that to the test?'

The eye narrowed. '**I want to see You become like Me. Hail the Doctor, the Great Exterminator!**'

He could hear the title the Emperor did not say.

_Ka-Faraq Gatri…_

He grabbed the detonator. '_I'll do it!_'

'**Then prove Yourself Doctor. What are You, coward or killer?**'

The words echoed through the room, through his mind, through his soul.

* * *

…_'Daleks? Tell me more.'…_

…_'If you had created a virus in your laboratory. Something contagious and infectious that killed on contact. A virus that would destroy all other forms of life…would you allow its use?… _

…_'But if I kill. Wipe out a whole intelligent life form, then I become like them. I'd be no better than the Daleks.'…_

…_'I know also, that out of their evil, must come something good.'…_

…_'So Davros has finally done it. Daleks that are capable of breeding anywhere.'…_

…_'Every large decision creates ripples.'…_

…_'Time will tell. It always does.'…_

…_'Dead. They burnt with you. The end of the last great Time War. Everyone lost.'…_

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The detonator fell.

'Coward, any day.'

The screen flickered.

'**Mankind will be harvested because of _Your_ Weakness.**'

_Kill once, shame on them. Kill twice, shame on me._

'Yeah. And what about me? Am I becoming one of your angels?'

'**You are the Heathen. You will be exterminated.**'

His mind was silent, peaceful now.

Nothing to do now but accept what he had been running from for so long.

'Maybe it's time.'

He closed his eyes, and listened quietly as the Daleks' weapon-stalks trained on his body.

The last man standing was about to fall.

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And in the time vortex, Time's Goddess watched and waited as the ancient engines rumbled on.

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END

(1) The Order of the Knights Tempus was Gallifrey's elite army, consisting of several exiled Time Lords recalled to their homeworld when the Time War began. First charged with defending Gallifrey in the Time War, they were later charged with protecting the secrets of time travel and a number of the artefacts of Rassilon and Omega.

I blame my own curiosity, the _Da Vinci Code_, Wikipedia and Indiana Jones for this idea. They may turn up in other fics, haven't decided yet!

(2) Davros, for anyone who hasn't read the 2006 Annual.


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